Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Justin Ling writes that the Cons' aversion to accountability isn't limited to their own government, as they're one of the few holdouts against transparency in resource-sector reporting of payments to governments abroad.

A coalition website, launched this week as a 17th round of TPP
negotiations gets underway in Lima, Peru, calls on TPP negotiators to
"reject copyright proposals that restrict open Internet, access to
knowledge, economic opportunity and fundamental rights." The website
gives people an opportunity to send the same message and receive regular updates on Fair Deal campaign actions and successes.

"A fair deal on copyright in the TPP takes into account the interests
of Internet users, libraries and archives, those with disabilities,
educators and business innovators as well as creators," says Susan
Chalmers from InternetNZ, one of 30 founding members of the new
campaign. "We're all part of the Internet economy. The Fair Deal
coalition is promoting fair copyright standards for the TPP that reflect
the needs of the broadest cross-section of society."

These beliefs are shared by many TPP participating countries. Peru's chief negotiator, Rodrigo Contreras, wrote in a popular Peruvian magazine
this week that the country should avoid limits on access to knowledge
online and the over-extension of copyright protection terms for books,
movies or music, that limit their availability in libraries and schools,
and that would make it more expensive for lower income people.

- Paul Krugman looks at Ireland as a prime example of gross economic numbers bearing no particular relationship to the actual strength of an economy - as profits moved there out of convenience are doing nothing whatsoever to reduce 14% unemployment. (Needless to say, it's always a good time for a reminder that's exactly the model the Saskatchewan Party wants to inflict on the province.)

- And Leif Larsen reports that still more Irish workers who have lost their jobs to corporatist mismanagement are being used to hurt workers in Canada - this time to avoid the possibility that workers on Manitoba construction sites might attempt to unionize.

- Jessica Bruno writes that the Cons' cuts to research extend to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,